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I have not tried to play through line outs yet. I keep wanting to plug it into my studio monitors but just havent done it yet.
The spectrum eq sounds like a good idea.

What steps did you take for tuning your 90X?
I actually have come to conclusion other than the damper pedal ringing being slightly extreme IMO my issue is so far only with the onboard speakers.

So what I just did which actually helped significantly...
I set my "touch" to fixed, grabbed my DB meter and set all the notes within about 5DB of each other across the Keyboard and within like 2 DB per octave. Some of the notes within the same octave were as much as 15 DB different through the onboard speakers. I feel this is why I was thinking it sounded out of tune and chord progressions etc just didn't sound right. This even helped some of my ringing complaint issues as I feel the "ringing" was not harmonically correct either due to the significant db difference in some keys. Once I switched my key touch back to normal the difference was significant.

I don't have an acoustic piano but I am curious to the DB difference between each key/octave. Although it is slightly harder to determine as it doesn't have a fixed touch option on an acoustic piano like the digital.

I am much happier with the onboard sound since these adjustments overall. I need to go back through and fine tune the adjustments I feel as the first time I did it was mainly a test so I didn't take the time to aim for perfection.
Also what I haven't checked is if it is similar across all the piano voices or if it was only effective for the grand piano voice.

I used the piano designer app (because it's easier and faster) and am going to save whatever I need into that for custom presets as I'm sure it sounds terrible through headphones with these tweaks. I couldn't find a way to save piano designer presets on board.

A compressor effect may help solve this issue if Roland provided one. Hard to say. I do feel for those who "hate" the Roland sound.. this may change their opinions if they only listened through onboard speakers.
I'm not sure if there is a way i could save my tweaks and share them with people to try but it would be nice if I could to get feedback once I get it perfected.

That is an interesting result in regards to differing in measured loudness.

From the stretch tuning curves their appears to be to different pianos, stage and concert snd each with four variations, 8 pure acoustic in total.

So I am guessing you will need two different loudness adjustments.

When you save your adjustment preset, it saves it to a file.

On an iOS device you will find it in the piano designer folder. Xxx.psf

You could share that file.

Note, the file contains the piano type. So if you are editing the concert brilliant and save it to a preset, and then apply it, the piano tone will become a concert brilliant.

Thanks for the info. I will see if there is a folder in android somewhere with the file. Once I do more testing and get something more precise I'll share a file for those that may be interested in trying it.

A few notes sounding too loud or a bit 'off' through the speakers is likely because of room acoustic effects. So a compressor would not help. Every room has acoustic resonances. Personally I don't enjoy the FP90X onboard speakers, I use monitors and I'm very happy. After playing it for a couple of weeks I went through and did a few small volume and character adjustments to a few notes on both the concert grand and the studio grand. I would expect that if I move the piano to a different room, or even a different location in the same room, I'd have to change those note tweaks again. I'll also note that the build in eq isn't really good enough for fixing these issues because there isn't fine grained enough control for the frequency and q settings for the mid band.

I play a mix of onboard sound and virtual piano. When I play the virtual pianos I use parametric eq on the laptop to dial in the sound for the speakers and room. I really like the built in usb audio interface, where 1 usb connection carries midi and digital audio. When used in this configuration, one of the FP90X volume sliders controls the volume output in the virtual instrument.

Mark: do you notice significant latency when using VSTs through the fp90x audio interface? Have you tried comparing latency through usb audio interface vs aux audio-in? There were reports in other threads that the fpX0x audio interfaces caused significant latency to make it useless for one cable VSTs... Thanks.

I have no latency problems, I use a macbook. I thought of measuring latency with an oscilloscope, but my simple way of doing so didn't work. On my other DP I'm used to an external audio interface that has a low latency driver. The FP90X audio interface sounds / feels just as good to me.

The FP90X has two ways to bring in external analog audio: line in and mono mic in. (Mic in has a gain control, it works fine with headphone audio out from my macbook.) Both of these audio signals get routed through the digital eq and the mic also has optional compressor and reverb effects. So I am 90% certain that both of these inputs are digitized, processed, mixed, and the converted back to analog for line out or internal speakers. So using analog line in might have _more_ latency than usb digital audio in, because of the additional digital-analog conversions in that signal path.

I'm very happy to take the external audio interface out of the setup, and off the top of my piano. I plug in by usb, I have the virtual instrument output to the FP90X over the usb. I then have the system audio routed to the headphones out. For a lesson over zoom I plug open back headphones into the laptop to hear my teacher but hear the piano through the monitors through the open back headphones. For practice with audio from the laptop, eg Sight Reading Factory with metronome or play along sound, I plug from laptop headphone out to the mic input of the FP90X. Then I have separate volume sliders on the FP90X for laptop sound, piano sound (either local or virtual) and a separate master volume. I find it helps me focus if I can get the mix just so using physical controls.

It would be amazing if the FP90X could assign one or more of its 5 volume sliders as a volume control to the line in or bluetooth in, but I don't think it can. Eg it has a 'song volume' slider I don't use. There are instead volume controls in the menus for those.

He was going to use the piano designer and adjust the per note volume. Not add compression or equalization.

I assume it worked.

I gave it a try but didn’t notice much difference and wasn’t sure I was measuring the proper thing after looking at the wave forms and peak spl reading.

Similar experience with no delay in using the usb audio input. I just kept the local piano on and played the vst over it and judged by ear.

I notice the volume sliders can send midi volume and apps will use that.

Agree the song volume slider could be more useful for adjusting the usb or blue tooth volume in.

Mark: thanks for your information. I really like the convenience of onboard audio interfaces, and your report is very helpful.

But shouldn't you connect the laptop output to the audio-in and not the mic-in? I know that the line level of a laptop headphone output is probably not as high as that of regular line-outs, but anyway the mic-in impedance is prepared for very low level signals. I would feel safer always connecting to the audio-in connector.

The mic input is convenient because of its dedicated volume slider on the top of the keyboard, and mono is fine for 'tutorial audio' from practice software. The line in would work too. Its volume control on the FP90X is in the menus :-( but of course the laptop has a volume control within easy reach too.

The headphone output from a laptop is designed to drive headphones which are low impedance, and it doubles up as a consumer line level output. A dynamic mic input is high impedance. So in this case all is well as low impedance out to high impedance in is 'correct'. The mic input also has a potentiometer on the back next to the input socket to adjust for different level signals. (I suspect Roland did this for pianists who want to use a battery powered mic which outputs a higher voltage signal vs an unpowered dynamic mic.) I turn the potentiometer all the way down to accommodate the headphones signal level. As the sound comes through with no clipping or distortion I'm content its working correctly and safely.

Yeah. I was going to also suggest putting the back panel gain button all the way down. Good to know that the mic works well and that it is mapped to a physical volume slider...

I will wait to see what are the successors of the p515 and mp11se, and then decide between one of the three (probably the yamaha, if it comes with the new action of the 745...). Thanks for your comments.

A couple of questions for you FP-90X lucky owners:

- Does anyone use the FP-90X as a stage piano for giggs? I watched a review where they said that could be a very good alternative instead to carry keyboard (like RD-2000) + a heavy amp. They said the the speakers are really good..

- If you connect the FP-90x to an external audio interface for recording purposes, can you still use the built-in speakers during the recording? If yes, can you control the two different outputs? I mean, do you have a slider to control the audio interface output and a slider to control the speakers output?
I wonder if in this case you could connect even the built-in speakers as output of the audio interface to be able to listen the playback too of your recordings..

- I know about the new function "Stage" and I wonder if they there are any filters for the headphones listening? How is like the FP-90X headphones output in general?

Thanks guys!

no gigging but some jamming and have moved it around. speakers are entirely fine for jamming with a group. I've also listened to it while not playing and it seemed plenty loud with a couple of guitars, electronic drums and a bass.

I noticed when we had a drummer outside who is pretty loud that having an external amp helped because everyone turned up their amps.

I am not entirely sure i would enjoy moving this around to gigs. I don't even like moving my 25 lbs casio. And bulk is an issue with any 88 keyboard in my opinion.

For recording, the FP-90x has usb audio in and out so you do not need an external audio interface. And you can play back through the speakers on the piano.

There are three volume output sliders in two section, 2 for the upper and lower section and one master volume.

For the head phones, lineout, and speakers, both sections of volume sliders apply.

For the USB audio out, it is only affected by the upper/lower slider. So you can have full output to the audio interface and adjust the volume you hear at the piano with the master volume slider.

The lineout is not a true lineout at a fixed volume. I guess there is good and bad about that.

There is no headphone ambience or mystage setting for the piano. Apparently headphone optimization is always on for that pair of outputs. The FP-60x does have a setting.

The mystage function is sort of shortcut aka preset to some fixed settings that change multiple settings on the piano. I'm not sure there is a way to customize them.

And it does have 1/4" and 1/8' headphone outputs.

Gig: I can hardly play yet ;-) but anyway FP90X is heavy. When you lift it the case flexes easily. Specifically if you lift 1 corner, the side you are lifting rotates upwards, twisting the keyboard. I have no idea if this is problematic over the long term. Is the RD2000 stronger? Stiffer?

There is a manual switch on the back that will turn the internal speakers on and off. So internal speakers is separate from using usb out or line out. Connecting headphones turns off internal speakers, but there is also a menu option for that, so you can have headphones and internal speakers at the same time. Headphone output is nice and clean. I don't know if it does do any special signal processing for the headphones. I think what it does it turn off the processing its doing for internal speakers.

The internal speakers get loud but they color the mids and apply a lot of bass. Yes there is onboard eq to make an adjustment but there is only so much it can do. By default the FP90X applies a lot of processing (just eq?) to sound being sent to the internal speakers. It seems really heavy handed. When you plugin headphones and the speakers turn off you can hear the FP90X adapt by turning off the heavy handed eq it was doing for its speakers. Ie for a fraction of a second you hear in the headphones the signal that is being sent to the speakers and then it changes.

There is a weird combination of settings where you can listen to the speaker signal through headphones. You turn off the physical speaker switch. You plug in headphones. Now you hear the clean piano sound in headphones. Then go to the menu and change the 'auto mute speakers when headphones plugging in' setting so the FP90X thinks it needs to drive internal speakers. Now in the headphones you head the heavily eq sound meant for the speakers. But the speakers are turned off by the switch. This sound does not sound good. It is really boomy and I think highs are boosted too, though I'm not sure quite what they are doing.

I suspect I would like the sound from the internal speakers _more_ if I could turn off whatever processing the FP90X does by default and just apply some eq from the sliders. But I don't think thats possible. (Maybe an experiment is possible to measure the speakers processing using a synth sound going to a laptop frequency analyser and then reverse engineering the eq setting to cancel out what the FP90X is doing?)

The master volume slider controls the level for internal speakers, headphones, and line out. I don't think you can adjust those output levels separately.

from the manual page 16. I have no idea if that is true or not but giving roland the benefit of the doubt here.

Forgot about that speaker on off switch on the back.

Interesting find about turning off the speakers and using the headphones. I assume that would allow you to output from the stereo jacks without the acoustic projection stuff enabled if you didn't want to use the line outs.

Its hard to say what is going on with processing for the speakers but there is only so much that will come out of them.

I don't know what processing is on the lineouts, I assume different from the speakers.

And the USB output I believe doesn't apply any equalization from the siders either and maybe the cleanest output.

I have not compared all of the audio output sources.

So I experimented...
Keytouch set to fixed so always get same volume for each note. Instrument set to GM2 Sine Lead. Not a pure sign wave, but close enough and easy to see in the live readout in the parametric eq in Mainstage (DAW on mac).
Correction to earlier - now when I take audio from FP90X headphone out and turn off 'auto mute speakers' the keyboard seems to ignore the speaker on/off switch on the back and I get sound from the internal speakers.

So I played up and down keyboard with the synth at constant volume, looking at the signal level at each frequency in the parametric eq live read out. Mostly its boosting bass a ton below 200Hz. I created a setting in my parametric eq that tried to cancel out what the FP90X speaker processing is doing. So big bass cut, but there also seems to be something going on in the mids around 520Hz where initially I was seeing a boost, but now I'm not sure. Unfortunately you can't set q for the bass, and cutting the bass enough to counteract all the boost killed too much around 200Hz. So I used the mid eq to boost 200Hz back up a bit.

I setup the DAW eq to a configuration thats possible to setup in the FP90X eq. Bass EQ 160Hz, Mid EQ 200Hz, Mid Q 2.0, didn't use the high. Then using the FP90X eq by sliding the bass down you can counter act the normal bass boost it does. Slide the mid up about 1/2 as much as you slide the bass down to balance it out the . Then I can see the signal coming out of the FP90X is much flatter. So if you use these settings with internal speakers, you can adjust how much of the 'always on bass boost for internal speakers' is used. Presumably you actually want some of that bass boost because the internal speakers need some of it.

I don't really know if this will be useful to anyone. If you want to mess with the eq its probably better to use the mid eq to try to reduce a room resonance or just adjust to taste. I just did this out of interest. I play with Genelec 8020d monitors.

I remember I was trying to reduce some boominess around 200-250 Hz in my old FP-80. Around A3 note. I was using mainly internal speakers.
Also one time sound engineer told me that it had some muddy character around this frequency, maybe some boominess too I don't remember correctly. Anyway needed to cut this range a bit. Maybe just the typical issue of Roland sound.

@Purdy @Mark thanks for sharing your experiences ! I will have a look to the manual.. although the fp90x has a good internal audio interface I would use my 2i2.. recording/filing through the iPad is very handy…

I use my ipad pro with the FP-90X for recording and playing through USB. The FP-90x is essentially a 2i2 audio interface. Only one cable and you don't power the audio interface.

And no converting to analog and back to digital in the keyboard.

Added bonus virtual instruments become a one cable solution as USB and audio are carried on the USB cable.

I found no difference in the headphones with the speaker switch on or off.

I did a crude sweep using a GM bell sound, as close to a sine wave as I could find.

I also ran the grand piano through.

again with fixed velocity

Both through the usb interface and through the speakers.

I see a dip in the 1.8K region. I don't see a particularly boomy bass. My ears and gut would agree with that assessment.

I wonder if there is a difference from the rooms? I only used the really precise mic from the ipad so I don't really have a reference to go by.

I do see some keys in the piano that could probably gain from some loudness adjustment and this is in the USB data too.

so I gave it a whack to equalize out the keys. The problem is everything by default is set to the maximum value and if you have keys that are low, you can't bring them up so I started by moving things down.

I don't notice a real difference but it did tame down a group around A6 that was sort of problematic. I now have a tuned and somewhat regulated piano.